Brison departure triggers shuffle
Treasury Board president quits to spend more time with family just months before election
Federal minister Scott Brison’s decision to quit cabinet gives Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a surprise opportunity to put some new faces and a fresh focus on his government before the fall election.
After almost 22 years in politics, Brison, who currently serves as Treasury Board president and minister of digital government, said he wants to spend more time with his husband, Maxime St. Pierre, and their twin daughters.
A shuffle will happen Monday ahead of a cabinet retreat later next week in Sherbrooke, Que. Trudeau himself suggested the coming cabinet moves would go beyond just filling vacancy left by Brison’s departure.
“This will require some changes to our cabinet,” Trudeau said Thursday, declining to offer any hints about what moves are planned.
With an election now just eight months away, Monday’s cabinet makeover marks a chance for Trudeau to put a fresh stamp on the priorities he wants to highlight for the remainder of his government’s first term.
The Liberals will want to put a renewed focus on progressive policies with continued messaging around help for the middle class and initiatives such as pharmacare and basic income expected either in the budget or the election platform.
“We’ll get signals to what the government believes will be the key policy areas that they have to communicate,” David Coletto, CEO of Abacus Data, said of Monday’s cabinet changes.
He said the Liberals enjoy an advantage over their political rivals but cautioned that “headwinds” loom.
“There’s whole debate around climate change and the carbon price. Questions around affordability, housing affordability, costs of food, costs of living, are things I think they are a little vulnerable on, that they have really talked about,” he said.
Coletto also wondered if Trudeau would tap younger MPs for cabinet posts to help better connect with those voters who helped put his party in government in 2015.
“One of the potential vulnerabilities for the Liberals is, are young Canadians excited, are they going to be compelled to come out and vote again?” Coletto said. “They were a critical part of the coalition that helped the Liberals win their majority,” he said.
Among possible new entrants to cabinet could be backbenchers from Nova Scotia, to maintain the regional balance. Ottawa’s pre-shuffle rumour mill floated names like MPs Bernadette Jordan, Sean Fraser and Andy Fillmore as contenders.
In the last shuffle in July, Dominic Leblanc, Jim Carr, Melanie Joly, Amarjeet Sohi, Carla Qualtrough, Francois-Philippe Champagne, Pablo Rodriguez, Bill Blair, Mary Ng, Filomena Tassi and Jonathan Wilkinson all took on new responsibilities, raising the question whether any of them would be moved again so soon.
However, some have suggested that underperformers like Sohi could be moved. The Edmonton MP, in charge of the natural resources ministry, has been a weak communicator on pipelines, a critical and divisive issue.
Brison’s decision not to run again caps a lengthy — and unusual — political career that saw the Nova Scotia politician serve as MP for the Progressive Conservative party and the Liberals — and run for the leadership of both.
Brison, MP for the riding of Kings-Hants, said he leaves politics even more convinced that “government matters” and says his own life story is proof.
As the first openly gay MP to hold a cabinet post, and who now has a samesex spouse and a family, Brison says he owes much of his own experiences to strong politicians who “decided take on tough issues, go against the popular mood of the day and do what was right.
“Anyone who wonders whether government or politics make a difference in people’s lives only has to look at my family to understand the power of leadership and progressive politics,” he told the Star Thursday.